After their embarrassing loss in their opener against New Zealand, Team India’s chance to qualify took a serious beating.

Team India needs to win well in the balance remaining group matches.

When the Indian women faced the Sri Lankan team, it was clear that India had to not only win the game but also do it with a high run margin to boast their NRR which may come in handy to qualify.

As expected, the Indian girls went hard from ball one and had an impressive outing with the bat. Openers, Smriti Mandhana (50) and Shafali Verma (43) gave India the much-needed start which helped Harmanpreet Kaur (52) and others to put the finishing touch in the end. India ended up with a score of 172/3.

While defending, the bowlers took the much-needed early wickets especially of the Sri Lankan Skipper, Chamara Athapaththu which broke the momentum of the chase.

Sri Lanka ended up being all-out for 90. India won the game with a margin of 82 runs.

While Renuka Singh (2 wickets) got the initial breakthrough, it was Arundhathi Reddy (3 wickets) and Asha Shobana (3 wickets) who did the finishing work.

This win has helped raise India’s NRR and put them in the top 2 spots in Group A.

Group A was touted as the group of death in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, 2024.

Though New Zealand had drawn first blood winning against India, they suffered a big loss against Australia.

The last 24 hours result in the tournament has kept India’s hope high and the qualification scenario is interestingly poised.

Only Sri Lanka after their 3 defeats is out of the qualification scenario

Table – After India’s win against Sri Lanka

Remaining fixtures:

Australia vs Pakistan

New Zealand vs Sri Lanka

India vs Australia, Dubai

Pakistan vs New Zealand

Who can Qualify in Group A and How?

Australia

With 2 good wins, Australia has the best chance to qualify. After their impressive win against New Zealand, they just need 1 game out of their 2 games left in the group.

The Aussies have 2 games left, against Pakistan and India. While they may be wary of India, the Pakistan game should be an easier game and a win in the Pakistan game will be good enough for the Aussie team to qualify.

If Australia wins both their games, they will be on top of the qualifying table from Group A.

Only If Australia loses both their games, NRR scenario may be needed to qualify. Only Pakistan or New Zealand has a chance to reach 6 points.

New Zealand

New Zealand though having lost to Australia is still the front-runner for second place if India loses to Australia and New Zealand wins their remaining two matches. This would be their ideal scenario.

It is advantageous for the White Ferns because they play relatively weaker opponents in Pakistan and Sri Lanka compared to India who have defending champions Australia to face.

Even in worst-case scenario with India beating Australia, New Zealand will be playing the last fixture of the group which will help them to play according to the required NRR.

India

While the opening loss will haunt team India, their win against Sri Lanka would have helped them to boast the NRR.

If Australia and New Zealand win all their remaining games, India will be eliminated.

If India wins against Australia, and should Australia beat Pakistan and New Zealand win both their two remaining games this will lead to a three-way fight for the top 2.

If India beat Australia by five runs, then New Zealand would need to beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka by a combined 42 Runs margin to surpass India’s NRR with the assumption that teams batting first score 130 runs each.

Pakistan

Pakistan has 2 big hurdles to cross if they want to qualify in Group A. Pakistan has to play and win against both Australia and New Zealand in their last two fixtures. This is a highly improbable scenario but not impossible.

Even if they win both their fixtures and achieve 6 points, they will still need India to lose against Australia.

Pakistan currently has 1 win and 1 loss with a 0.55 NRR.